Act 1 scene 1

• Act 1, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" is one of the most famous scenes in the play, introducing the audience to the witches and their mysterious world.
• In Elizabethan times, the belief in witchcraft and supernatural activity was prevalent, making the witches a huge draw for audiences.
• The first line of the scene, "When shall we three meet again", is a reference to the witches' meeting, which is complete and finished.
• In Shakespeare's play "Macbeth", the witches use rhyming couplets, which gives the play a sinister and darker tone.
• The witches speak in trochaic tetrameter, which is the opposite of iambic pentameter used by Macbeth and the other characters in the play.
• The use of rhyming couplets and trochaic tetrameter by the witches serves as a clear break between them and the other characters in the play.
• The witches' meeting is a dark world where there's confusion and everything isn't quite as it seems, a recurring theme in the play.
• The scene opens with thunder and lightning and continues with the witches talking about hurley burley in a battle that is lost and won, reinforcing the idea of appearances versus reality.
• The scene closes as the audience is none the wiser about what is happening, with the last line being "Fair is foul and foul is fair".
• Shakespeare structures the play so as to show the supernatural and dark atmosphere will have a strong importance in the play.
• When the witches speak in scene one, they speak in rhyme, using a style of language to signify their importance or rank.
• Noble characters in the play speak in iambic pentameter, a style of language chosen by Shakespeare to signify their importance.